Customer acquisition is a key requirement for growth for service businesses in various industries such as banking, insurance, telecommunication, cable or satellite TV, print or media, etc. Enrolling or subscribing new customers for a service involves getting critical information about the customer, informing the customer regarding terms of a service contract, getting customer consent, receiving payment, etc. Typically, paperwork related to enrollment is completed by filling out standard forms, which are processed and/or validated by the businesses to set up the service or transaction. Often, the enrollment or application forms are filled out by the customers or sales representatives of the businesses. For example, at a bank, opening a new bank account involves completing one or more account opening forms, while a new loan may require completion of one or more loan application forms.
For a customer's convenience, a business representative may go on the road and facilitate filling out the relevant forms at a customer's home or office. For example, banks can capitalize on a business opportunity by sending representatives to the premises of a company to enroll new employees by opening salary accounts. Further, bank branches in rural or semi-urban areas may not be easily accessible to customers; therefore, banks acquire new customers in such areas by sending representatives to customer's home or workplace. In urban areas, a bank representative may set up meetings and meet individual customers by appointment at a convenient location. Each bank representative may meet as many as 20 people per day within his or her assigned area. As a result, there are risks of errors if the representative mistakenly switches documents from different customers.
When they go on the road, bank representatives may carry a kit of forms to the customer's home or workplace to open a new account. In the customer's presence, the representative may fill out parts of the required forms and collect photocopies of required supporting documents, such as proof of identity and proof of address. Later on, the bank representative may use the photocopies of the supporting documents to fill out the application form completely. This process may be prone to errors as the customer is not present to validate and verify the information in the forms. For example, a representative may enter an error in a person's address or birth date.
Further, if the customer does not have photocopies of the supporting documents, the bank representative may have to take the supporting documents to on external photocopying service (such as a nearby photocopy shop) to prepare the application set, which is time-consuming. Thereafter, the filled forms are typically couriered to a branch office or a back-office, for further checking and processing. If any form is missing or inconsistent or inaccurate information is inserted, the bank representative may have to contact the customer again. There is also a great risk that the forms or the supporting documents may get damaged or lost during transit.
In practice, bank representatives often take photocopies of the supporting documents and customer's photographs and signature on an empty form and fill out the application form with the help of supporting documents once he or she is back to the branch office. Although this practice saves the time in the beginning, it may increase time that the representative has to spend verifying information or the customer may have to contact the bank to fix errors in the application. Because the representative is not filling most of the form in the customer's presence, the chance of errors in filling information increases. For example, the bank representative may mistakenly switch the first and last name of the customer or use a prior phone number as the current contact number, etc.
Thus, there is a need to develop portable devices, related systems and methods that are robust, and decrease the time needed to fill out and process forms quickly and accurately with minimal errors.